The return of Beer Culture, a good thing

Evan Rail writes about his plans for Beer Culture, which has been dark since last fall.

I hope to write more stories — to tell the tale of how something happened, in other words. How a beer got made, imported or drunk. To tell you who did it and why. And at the same time, I hope to add some light to the history of beer in central Europe: there is simply too much that hasn’t been written about the beer culture here, certainly not in English, and I have to imagine that you, as a reader, would be much more interested in reading those stories than in hearing my personal reactions. You can find personal reactions anywhere. But good stories? Those are hard to come by.

Focus. What a great idea. Perhaps I should try that.

And the brewing gods are . . .

A press release for the third Philly Beer Week (PBW) indicates at least 865 events are planned for June 4 to 13. That’s pretty [insert your preferred obscenity ending in -in’] impressive.

The one that caught my eye: The Forum of the Gods, “a spirited afternoon of beer talk, beer drinking and big names in brewing, with all proceeds going to benefit PBW.”

And who might these gods be?

Jim Koch of Boston Beer; Phil Markowski of Southampton Publick House; Tom Kehoe of Yards Brewing and Wendy Yeungling of D.G. Yeungling & Son. The forum will be moderated by Don “Joe Sixpack” Russell, PBW executive director. Mortal or god? Not clear.

Tickets are $25 per person, which includes nectar from each of the four participating gods.

But back to all the other events. Bryan Kolesar has translated the crazy schedule of events into a spreadsheet you can download. Fine work by a mere mortal.

If Yuppies still exist what do they drink?

As I walked out one evening, down Columbus Avenue,
The sushi bars were shuttered, the dark cantinas, too.
I stood there in the darkness, as an empty cab rolled by
When all at once I heard the sound of Yuppies in the sky.

I’ve seen them in commercials, sailing boats and playing ball,
Pouring beer for one another, crying, “Why not have it all?”.
Now I saw the ghostly progress, down Columbus Avenue,
I heard the cry for mercy, and it chilled me through and through.

– Tom Paxton

So I was listening to “Yuppies in the Sky” this morning (as sung by Mr. Paxton) and the question at the top occurred to me.

Perhaps a silly thought, but Yuppies were in their “prime” about the time we started talking about microbreweries. Plus Yuppies certainly were (or should I be typing are?) about badges. And, like it or not, beer that isn’t yellow in the glass still serves as a badge.

I’m pretty sure I saw Yuppies drinking non-yellow beer about the time the 1980s morphed into the ’90s, but I don’t seem to have any photos. Wonder what was in their glasses.

That’s me on the left

Draft magazine’s On the Beer Blogger Beat: Stan Hieronymus.

I think my answers are the the shortest so far. The brevity should surprise those who drink beer with me.

Anyway, in case you are wondering, that’s Brother Antoine from Abbaye Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy in Rochefort on the right of the photo I provided.

And it’s a good thing Noah asked me for my input before Draft made “Who’s your favorite beer blogger?” it’s question of the week.

12May2010: Beer linkorama

You do have to live within the Greater London area to apply for this position, but what better reason to move?

London’s historic Old Spitalfields Market has announced it’s looking for a candidate to resurrect the ancient role of Ale Taster. Entries are due by May 23. From the website:

In medieval times, ordinary citizens were appointed to oversee and inspect various aspects of everyday life, effectively doing the work of our modern Inspectors of Weights and Measures. Not surprisingly, one of the most popular offices to be held was that of the Ale Taster also known as Ale Conner. His duties involved visiting stalls and inns on market days and during the town’s fairs to ensure that the ales, beers and other produce on sale were of good quality.

“Ale Tasters would have been a familiar sight in London.” explains Malcolm Ball, chief executive of Wellington Market Company, the company responsible for Old Spitalfields Market.

He added that he felt that the ancient office would still hold its value even centuries on. “Although the attraction of such a role may seem obvious at first, the 21st Century version would incorporate many more responsibilities than the original. Our ceremonial Ale Taster would become an ambassador for the promotion of drink and food in the area. Modern tastes have evolved and become so much more sophisticated in recent times and people demand ever greater levels of quality and variety.”

The site also explains: “The candidates will really have their knowledge tested by a number of different rounds. Blind-tasting will be the order of the day and contestants will be pitted against one another in a bid to claim the ceremonial role. The final round will consist of a one minute pitch to the panel of judges to demonstrate presentation skills.”

I’m already thinking a cage match pitting the English Ale Taster and the Wynkoop Beerdrinker of the Year might be in order.

  • Tomme Arthur did a better job of explaining why collaborative brewing leads to better brewing than I last week in writing for The Session. To understand the sweet spot brewers are in right now he points to a less-good scenario: “But I do fear the day when Collaborative beers are less about imagination and more about SKU’s and push pull scenarios.”
  • Think Batch 19 from MillerCoors could turn out to be the next Blue Moon White? Me either. Right now it is being tested in four markets, and no matter how it does in the tests it doesn’t look like the brewing company would wait for the same organic growth it allowed Blue Moon (pardon the plug, but details in “Brewing with Wheat”). A mini-interview with Keith Villa — the brewer who wrote the recipe for Blue Moon White and came up with the idea of serving it with a slice of orange — is worth your time.
  • This isn’t exactly new, but Lake Placid Craft Brewing closed its brewing facility in Plattsburgh, N.Y., and F.X. Matt Brewing in Utica now produces all Lake Placid beer for distribution. Lack Placid still brews its own beer at its brewpub. I heard it suggested at the recent Craft Brewers Conference we should expect more of this. Many small-batch breweries have built up a certain following, but recognize that at their size production is be too labor intensive and inefficient to make them sustainable — that is a business that would be passed from one generation to the next. Meanwhile they can find breweries, like F.X. Matt, with excess capacity and well-run packaging plants, perfect operations to produce better quality controlled beer than they can make themselves. Nothing wrong with this. For instance, Matt has long brewed beers for Brooklyn Brewery. But let’s hope these breweries are honest telling the whole story behind their beer.
  • Speaking of the importance of where. Emerald City Beer will soon be making beer in Seattle’s old Rainier Brewery and will focus on lager. Founder Rick Hewitt plans to use Washington-grown ingredients.
  • From the New York Times: “Pairing a DVD and a Drink Takes Care.” No, no, no. Not if it’s beer. Keep it simple. A good movie. A good beer. Am I missing something?